North Northamptonshire Partners North Northamptonshire Market Towns and Rural Regeneration Final Report May 2004 Entec UK Limited "Produced with funding from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and the East Midlands Development Agency" Report for North Northamptonshire North Northamptonshire Partners c/oKaren Horner Partners Planning Policy Manager Strategy and Policy Directorate East Northamptonshire Council North Northamptonshire Cedar Drive Thrapston Market Towns and Rural Northants Regeneration NN14 4LZ Final Report Main Contributors Nigel Stuart-Baker Alan Chaplin May 2004 Neil Hall Gareth Smith Entec UK Limited Emma Moore Issued by ………………………………………………………… Neil Hall Approved by ………………………………………………………… Alan Chaplin Entec UK Limited Gables House Kenilworth Road Leamington Spa Warwickshire CV32 6JX England Tel: +44 (0) 1926 439000 Fax: +44 (0) 1926 439010 h:\projects\ea-210\12947 market towns appraisal\reports\final report v.2.doc Certificate No. EMS 69090 Certificate No. FS 13881 In accordance with an environmentally responsible approach, this document is printed on recycled paper produced from 100% post-consumer waste, or on ECF (elemental chlorine free) paper i Contents 1. Introduction 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 Study Aims 1 1.2.1 Key Issues and Considerations 1 1.3 Report Structure 3 2. Recent Research and Study Approach 5 2.1 Introduction 5 2.2 Recent Research and Studies 5 2.2.1 Planning For Sustainable Rural Economic Development (Land Use Consultants for Countryside Agency - March 2003) 5 2.2.2 The Role of Rural Settlements as Service Centres (Land Use Consultants for Countryside Agency - January 2004) 6 2.2.3 Are Villages Sustainable? A Review of Literature (UWE for Countryside Agency - June 2001) 7 2.3 Study Methodology 7 3. Policy Context 11 3.1 Planning Policy 11 3.1.1 Planning Policy Guidance Notes 11 3.1.2 RPG8 - Regional Planning Guidance for the East Midlands 14 3.1.3 Milton Keynes and South Midlands Sub Regional Strategy (MKSM SRS) 15 3.1.4 Northamptonshire Structure Plan 17 3.1.5 Local Plans 18 3.1.6 Community Strategies 20 4. Baseline Information 23 4.1 Introduction 23 4.2 Community Facilities and Services 23 4.3 Employment and Economy 24 4.3.1 Context 24 4.3.2 Economies 24 h:\projects\ea-210\12947 market towns appraisal\reports\final report v.2.doc May 2004 ii 4.3.3 Land Availability and Demand 25 4.3.4 Housing Need 27 4.4 Education 29 4.5 Transportation and Communications 31 4.5.1 Rural Public Transport 31 4.5.2 Highway Links 32 4.5.3 Mode of Travel 32 4.5.4 Proposed Improvements 34 4.6 Healthcare 34 4.6.1 Location of Facilities 34 4.7 Utilities 36 4.8 Parish Council Interviews 36 5. Settlement Linkages, Patterns and Roles 39 5.1 Existing Settlement Hierarchy and Patterns 39 5.2 Exploring Settlement Roles and Linkages 40 5.3 Summary and Conclusions 55 6. Emerging Strategy and Policy 57 6.1 Creating Balanced Communities 57 6.1.1 Service Capacity and Thresholds 57 6.1.2 Employment Development 59 6.2 Diversification Of the Rural Economy 60 6.2.1 Quantifying the Stock of Farm Buildings 60 6.2.2 Policy for Rural Diversification 61 6.3 Defining Rural and Local Service Centres 62 6.3.1 Defining Rural Service Centres 63 6.3.2 Defining Local Service Centres 64 6.3.3 Sustainability of the Rural Areas 64 6.4 Summary and Conclusions 65 7. Summary and Recommendations 67 7.1 Summary of Findings 67 7.2 Recommendations 68 h:\projects\ea-210\12947 market towns appraisal\reports\final report v.2.doc May 2004 iii Table 2.1 General Study Approach and Methodology 9 Table 3.1 MKSM SRS Housing Requirements 2001 - 2021 16 Table 3.2 Local Plan and LDF Progress 18 Table 3.3 Existing Local Plan Settlement Hierarchy 19 Table 4.1 Rural Employment Sites 26 Table 4.2 Rural Schools Future Capacity Issues 30 Table 4.3 Comparison of Travel to Work Modes and Average Distance Travelled 33 Table 5.1 Settlement Profiles and Roles 42 Table 6.1 Local Facilities - Possible Thresholds 57 After Page Figure 1 MKSM Sub Regional Strategy 16 Figure 2 Residential Land Availability 16 Figure 3 Broadband Internet Availability 24 Figure 4 Employment Context 26 Figure 5 Location of Schools in Rural Areas 30 Figure 6 Primary School Catchment and Capacity 30 Figure 7 Secondary School Catchment and Capacity 30 Figure 8 Transport and Accessibility 32 Figure 9 Healthcare Facilities 34 Figure 10 Existing Settlement Hierarchy - Justified by Services 40 Appendix A Parish Telephone Survey Pro-forma Appendix B Parish Survey Summaries Appendix C Community Facilities and Services Matrix Appendix D Existing Settlement Hierarchy - Justified By Services Appendix E List of Farm Building in East Northamptonshire Appendix F Examples of Policy Approach to Rural Diversification h:\projects\ea-210\12947 market towns appraisal\reports\final report v.2.doc May 2004 iv h:\projects\ea-210\12947 market towns appraisal\reports\final report v.2.doc May 2004 1 1. Introduction 1.1 Introduction Entec was appointed by the North Northamptonshire Strategic Partners in February 2004 to undertake research and establish a framework for building sustainable rural communities of the future in the North Northamptonshire Growth Area. The Strategic Partners include Northamptonshire County Council, East Northamptonshire Council, Corby Borough Council, Kettering Borough Council and Wellingborough Borough Council. The study was required to develop a comprehensive approach to the strategic planning of rural and local service centres and assess the potential to accommodate growth in the context of the Government’s Sustainable Communities Plan (Sustainable Communities Building for the Future, ODPM, February 2003). The following document sets out the results of our study based on the Project Brief as issued on 19th January 2004. The study area covers rural parts of the four Boroughs of Corby, Kettering, Wellingborough and East Northamptonshire, as indicated in Figure 1 (after page 16). 1.2 Study Aims The main aim of the study was to provide a framework that would enable the Strategic Partners to: • develop a comprehensive approach to the planning of market towns and other service centres, that recognises rural distinctiveness; • have an informed approach to the development of policies and actions with regard to wider regeneration and the activities of the Limited Liability Partnership in implementing sustainable growth; and • identify a local response to the growth area proposals and the challenges facing the area’s rural communities. This study represents one of the first stages in this process and is not intended to present a finalised strategy. Further work will therefore be required to develop the long-term approach with the involvement of key stakeholders. 1.2.1 Key Issues and Considerations In undertaking the study it was clear that that a wide range of issues need to be considered and based on the Brief these were identified as: • the methodology and sustainability criteria for defining Rural and Local Service Centres, as well as other settlements and rural areas; • the particular roles of settlements within a hierarchy and their interaction with their rural hinterlands and the main urban areas; h:\projects\ea-210\12947 market towns appraisal\reports\final report v.2.doc May 2004 2 • existing linkages between settlements, villages and groups of villages and the potential for development and enhancement; • the existing and proposed services and facilities provided in the study area, employment locations, education, leisure and social facilities and access to the public transport network; • the sustainability of individual settlements and rural areas with regard to the level of services they provide, the range and balance of job opportunities and accessibility (especially public transport); • the potential for additional development to improve a settlement’s sustainability by supporting better education, medical facilities, shops, bus services or providing an improved housing-employment balance; • the sustainability of the rural area having regard to access to services and other urban centres within and immediately adjoining the study area, such as Peterborough; • the stock of available large complexes of buildings and large individual buildings and the potential for re-use, taking into account sustainability and local considerations; and • how best proposals for development and rural diversification could be expressed in Local Development documents (LDDs). Furthermore, from our consideration of the issues we have also considered the following matters: • Key environmental constraints associated with settlements and rural areas that may preclude or limit additional development, such as listed buildings, conservation areas or sensitive landscapes. • Committed programmes and policies affecting the area, for example transport infrastructure proposals, community strategy, housing needs surveys, regeneration priorities. • Other studies and guidance set out in PPS7 (Sustainable Development in Rural Areas), PPG13 (Transport), PPS6 (Planning for Town Centres), MKSM Sub- Regional Strategy and Market Towns Initiative. • The impact of the key urban extensions associated with the principal urban areas at Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough, for example improvements to service, employment, leisure and transport opportunities and their linkage and proximity to the rural areas. All of this research and work has been brought together in the formulation of an overall strategy with recommendations for the spatial distribution of development. It has not been the purpose of this study to identify specific allocations/proposals in terms of numbers of houses or land, but rather the initial strategy framework that will be used to guide these decisions at a later stage of the work. h:\projects\ea-210\12947 market towns appraisal\reports\final report v.2.doc May 2004 3 1.3 Report Structure The remaining chapters of this report are as follows: • Chapter 2 : Recent Research and Study Approach; • Chapter 3 : Policy Context; • Chapter 4 : Baseline Conditions; • Chapter 5 : Settlement Linkages, Patterns and Roles; • Chapter 6 : Emerging Strategy and Policy; and • Chapter 7 : Summary and Recommendations.